Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie

20 Mar 03 - 04:27 AM (#914272)
Subject: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: McGrath of Harlow

Here's a song I wrote about the peace activist from the West Coast who was killed this week when a bulldozer ran over her in the Gaza Strip.

I put it in this non-music thread I started was about this event, which rapidly turned into a heated discussion about the rights and wrongs of the whole Israel/Palestine thing, rather than about non-violence.

Anyway I know lots of people tend to avoid the BS and non-music threads, with enough good reason, so here the song is once again in case any of them might like to read it or hear it. (If anyone wants to discuss the rights and wrongs of the whole Israel/Palestine thing, I suggest it might be better to head off to that other thread rather than this one.)

Well I know her name was Rachel, and they say that she was shy,
And they say she's got a family to mourn,
And they live out on the West Coast, that's half a world away,
Only twenty three – she'd hardly yet been born,
But she was standing in the way of the war
Standing in the way of the war.
Standing in the path of the monster once again.
Trying to find some way to stop the killing and the pain
Standing in the way of the war.

Standing in the way of the hatred rolling down,
Standing up with nothing in her hands,
All the way from Washington to the Gaza strip she came,
And she died there with that nothing in her hands.
She was standing in the way of the war
Standing in the way of the war.
Standing in the path of the monster once again.
Trying to find some way to stop the killing and the pain
Standing in the way of the war.

Standing in the way as the crushing tracks came on,
"We shall not be moved, just like a tree"
All that she could do was put her body on the line
And hope that she could make the driver see.
She was standing in the way of the war
Standing in the way of the war.
Standing in the path of the monster once again.
Trying to find some way to stop the killing and the pain
Standing in the way of the war.

(Here's a link to where it is in my song website - Rachel Corrie - and here is a link to - a sound file (RealAudio)

This song has now been added to the Mudcat Songbook

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20 Mar 03 - 02:39 PM (#914697)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: sed

Subject:    The Death of Rachel Corrie
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 2:46 AM
Subject: [peoplesmusic] The Death of Rachel Corrie


The Death of Rachel Corrie
David Rovics

When she sat down in the dirt
In front of your machine
A lovely woman dressed in red
You in military green
If you had met her in Jerusalem
You might have asked her on a date
But here you were in Gaza
Rolling towards the gate

As your foot went to the floor
Did you recall her eyes
Did her gaze remind you
That you've become what you despise
As you rolled on towards this woman
And ignored all the shouts to stop
Did you feel a shred of doubt
As you watched her body drop

And as your Caterpillar tracks
Upon her body pressed
With twenty tons of deadly force
Crushed the bones within her chest
Could you feel the contours of her face
As you took her life away
Did you serve your country well
On that cool spring day

And when you went back across the Green Line
Back to the open shore
Did you think that this was just another day
In a dirty war
And when you looked out on the water
Did you feel an empty void
Or was it just one more life you've taken
One more home destroyed

David Rovics
www.davidrovics.com
[e-mail]
[phone] (voicemail)
[phone] (cell phone)
PO Box 995
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 (USA)

[e-mail]

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20 Mar 03 - 03:40 PM (#914749)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Lovely guys. I was just telling Rick, by PM I have been struggling with a song about Rachel... perhaps it will be posted soon. Really lovely songs guys. What a dark dark day in a season of dark days.
Cheers
Larry

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20 Mar 03 - 07:24 PM (#914897)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: open mike

did anyojne come up with lyrics that go to the tune of darlin' corey?
i concieved of the notion, but have not arrived at a conclusion..
too busy beinig shocked and awed...

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21 Mar 03 - 06:59 AM (#915233)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Rachel Corrie
Words Lorcan Otway Tune traditional.
All rights reserved Otway 2003

I wish I could look into your hardened eyes,
who drove that tractor as young Rachel dies
Have you lost all your love, could you possibly see
You've become like the monsters of your sad history

Is there love in your tractor, of fifty two tons
is hope and desire in your tanks or your guns
is there the light of kindness in your bullets of lead
do these things feel remorse for the innocent dead

If she could be with us, Rachel Corrie would say
sing another one's story, not mine if you may
Sing a song about Ali, who was only eight
when a tank driver's hatred sealed Ali's sad fate

Sing a song of a mother, expecting new life,
who grew up in hopelessness, terror and strife
Young Nuha who died when her home was struck down
by an Israeli army tractor in her Gaza Strip town

But Rachel forgive me, if I sing of your love
how you cared for the ones few ever think of
perhaps some who can't feel a strangers cold pain
by your murder may understand Israel's shame

I wish I could find a few gentle lines
to plant in your hearts some sheltering vines
I wish I could bring you some small bit of love
As a gift to remember Olympia's dove

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21 Mar 03 - 01:37 PM (#915465)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: Áine

A Lór,

This is an excellent song. May I please have your permission to place it with Kevin's in the Songbook?

Also, what tune do you sing with it?

Le meas is grá, Áine

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21 Mar 03 - 02:53 PM (#915523)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Call me and I will sing it to you, I called Kev, and it is like a few traditional tunes, but I may have made it up, not sure! Trouble with knowing so many songs. Please do add it to the songbook.
Is mise le meas agus grá,
Lór

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21 Mar 03 - 04:32 PM (#915589)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

That is really it, McGrath, we all see different things happening. I had recently written about standing in front of war, the Teinamin Sq. immage in Walking with King, so I was struck by her desire to tell her parents of the pain of others, rather than what must have been hard for her, facing her fear in an unfamilier place. But, your song is spot on, standing in front of war. An Israeli friend of mine, a lawyer who worked for Palistinian rights, said, the real shame is that the driver likely didn't care, no hate no love, just she was in the way and he didn't care. If only we could melt those hard hearts.
what a world.
Peace
Larry

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21 Mar 03 - 04:45 PM (#915603)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: McGrath of Harlow

On that other thread I wrote: "I imagine it won't be long and they'll have robots doing that kind of driving to cut out the chance of them thinking what they are doing. Maybe in a sense they already are using robots."

What happens is that people get turned into cogs in a machine. That's even the term used - "the military machine". Expecting people to step out of line and act as human beings is sometimes asking an awful lot, because switching off and acting like a machine must be the only way you keep sane in some sitruations.Except that it's not really sane.

It's not that different really from the way that someone bombing a civilian target (by jet plane or bicycle, no real difference) manages to avoid seeing the victims as people like the people he or she loves. We are capable of dividing our minds and our souls into compartments.

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21 Mar 03 - 04:51 PM (#915608)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

I fear you are right, Kev, and we are left to ask, does the tractor, the gun or the bullet have a concsence.
Well, better days
Speed the day
Larry

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21 Mar 03 - 05:51 PM (#915660)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: Rick Fielding

Will you be singing this live in New York over the next while Larry? It's a topical song and needs to be out there.

Rick

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21 Mar 03 - 11:28 PM (#915834)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Hope so! I will be singing it at a fundraiser for Lynne Stewart's case, and I expect it will be on WBAI by Monday, but, well,... would be nice if I had a few live gigs.
Cheers
Larry

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22 Mar 03 - 10:04 AM (#915969)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Odd, I must say, that 116 posts are made to the political post about Rachel Corrie, and only, now 14 posts about songs about her. Just one of those Hmmmmmm things. I don't know what that means, just odd.
I hope when this generation is sung about, unlike the projections of Rumsfeild, we sing about folks like Rachel.
Cheers
Larry

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22 Mar 03 - 10:40 AM (#915990)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: Áine

A Lór,

I've added your song to the Songbook here. If there are any comments you'd like to add on your songpage, please PM or email them to me and I'll place them above the lyrics.

Thanks again to yourself and Kevin for your music and good hearts.

Le meas is grá is mise Áine

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22 Mar 03 - 04:00 PM (#916131)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: SINSULL

I have read the lyrics to both your songs. As always I am in awe of anyone who can put a tragedy into a few lines and make sense of it.

I keep trying to understand the connection between this young woman's death and the death of the Iraqi soldiers who were bulldozed under in the Gulf War. What enables a sane man to do this?

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22 Mar 03 - 05:24 PM (#916183)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: CarolC

It's a good song, Larry, and beautifully written. I'm grateful to you for writing it.

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22 Mar 03 - 05:26 PM (#916185)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: CarolC

Oops. I got shunted over here from another thread, directly to Larry's song, and I didn't see the other songs posted here. I'll go read them now.

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22 Mar 03 - 06:44 PM (#916217)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: Janice in NJ

Agreed. Lorcan, your song is a winner. Could you please make a sound file we can download? I take it you were at the march down Broadway today. Good work, too, by McGrath and by David Rovics. Thanks, one and all.

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22 Mar 03 - 06:51 PM (#916224)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Hi Janice, I was at the march... one of the best signs was "I drink Boeujourlea and I vote"... I was there with a bunch of Quakes. Tell ya what... I am really bad at making sound files etc. but drop me a pm with an address and I will post you a CD with 16 new songs, including Rachel Corrie, and if you can, you are welcome to make a sound file for Mudcat folks.
Thanks and thanks to Carol, Mary and Kat for the kind words.
Lor

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23 Mar 03 - 12:49 AM (#916371)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Hi Open Mike:
At this site, sorry, I don't know how to do clickies...
http://www.distanceeddesign.com/rachel/
you will find a song a friend of Rachel's wrote to Darling Cory.
Here it is, late on a Saturday night, early on a Sunday morning, in truth... and I have to get centered down, and get a bit of sleep so I don't fall asleep in meeting tommorow. But, 100,000 people today, marching for sanity can't do much to ease the mind in the face of the death of so many Rachel Corries tonight, each who dies as she did, one person, one univerce at a time.
Good night friends
Larry

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23 Mar 03 - 02:02 PM (#916560)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: McGrath of Harlow

Here is a clicky to that memorial site Larry just gave ushttp://www.distanceeddesign.com/rachel/.

And here is a good,fairly long, but well worth reading, piece from today's Observer about Rachel and the impact is having - Making of a martyr :

Corrie and her fellow ISM activists chose to live there to bring attention to the misery of the Palestinians and show solidarity with people perceived as terrorists by most Americans. They are respected and welcomed by the Palestinians, and often act as human shields to protect children from Israeli gunfire by accompanying them as they walk to school.

Rachel had become politically conscious only since 11 September, 2001. She was no Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant, groomed for martyrdom and soothed by the promise of a privileged place in heaven.

Perhaps there really is a chance that her death, unarmed and non-violent, philosophically as well as tactical, might point the way to a different type of of self-sacrificing struggle for desperate young Palestinians who have been sucked into the madness of the suicide bombings.

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23 Mar 03 - 02:11 PM (#916562)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Thanks McGrath.
Larry

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23 Mar 03 - 03:00 PM (#916592)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: Charley Noble

Good work, gang!

Charley Noble

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24 Mar 03 - 11:06 AM (#917087)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: sed

Rachel Corrie felt led to stand up against the Israeli State Bulldozer.
Was she a born-again Christian?
Will she live forever with God?
I'd like to hear a confident song about her immortal soul.
Would you write and sing it for me?
What musical tribute might you write or sing about and for her?
What if those who inspired her (and others) to die for this cause were helping to destroy her soul?
Isn't that worth considering?
Christ confidently told us that we can know our eternal fate.
Isn't it time to listen to Jesus?

-singin' steve

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24 Mar 03 - 11:17 AM (#917103)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Hi singing Steve, if by listening to "Jesus" we are listening to that still small voice within, which may lead us to the knowlege that the name of our understanding of God is of no matter, and if you, in that sense remember that the risen Christ was not recognised by those who knew him best until he revield himself, teaching us that we should look as closly for God in Buddha, Alah, or in each other's eyes... then yes it is them to listen.
Yours in the light
Larry

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24 Mar 03 - 11:25 AM (#917112)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: sed

Isn't it time to hear Jesus?
To turn and face the King?
Isn't it time to hear Jesus
and let Him inspire us to sing?

We can lie around and grumble
over injustice we must wade through
or we can try listening to Jesus
As His is the voice that is true.

His is the voice that is true
no matter what we have been through.
It's time to make time for Jesus
for Jesus sure made time for you.

His is the voice that leads us
to the other shore.
His is the voice that placates us
when all we want is more.

When is it time to hear Jesus?
When is it time to be led
through the broad plain of perdition
to 'God's Land' for which Jesus bled?

When is it time to trust Jesus?
When will we fin--'ly see
That the martyrdom of Jesus
was made for you-- and me?

-song in progress by singin' steve sedberry
[tune available]

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24 Mar 03 - 11:30 AM (#917117)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Hi Steve... good song... but I think thee has neglected to respond to the question.
Thy brother in the light
Larry

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25 Mar 03 - 10:27 AM (#917893)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Hi all:
If you get WBAI in New York, today between 11 and 12 they will be playing the song for Rachel Corrie.
Peace and Rememberence
Larry

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25 Mar 03 - 10:58 AM (#917924)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: Rick Fielding

You're a tolerant guy Larry.

Got my new Sorcha Dorcha album(S) yesterday. Thank goodness Larry has listened to the rantings of a radio DJ who doesn't WANT to start wearing glasses for everything yet! The songs (and their times!) are listed.....on the CD itself, and on the back of the box. Oh....would the majority of the hundreds who send indy CDs out, take notice of something THAT simple and THAT crucial to GETTING your airplay.

Played "Walking With King" on Acoustic Workshop last night, and will continue to try and give some exposure in Toronto to your music.

Cheers

Rick

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25 Mar 03 - 04:17 PM (#918223)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Rick: I am humbled by your endorcement of the music. Actually, I was not being sarcastic with our evangelical brother, nor is it thread drift... rather, I think that Rachel's bravery reminds us that there is a need for dialoge in God. Frankly, it may well be, and I hope, that his point is not that Jesus is God to the exclution of God as Ram, as Alah etc. I hope that we can come to the understanding that those who cannot see God other than in the name they call God, are as right as we... but, I think we need to keep talking to each other so that we may see that of God in each of us.
Thanks Thanks Thanks Thanks Thanks... etc.
Larry

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25 Mar 03 - 04:40 PM (#918248)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: Marion

McGrath and Larry, have you considered sending your songs to Rachel's parents - perhaps asking her organization if they would forward a letter to them (and telling the organization they can open it first to see that it's not hate mail)?

Marion

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25 Mar 03 - 05:13 PM (#918276)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Hi Marion:
Rachel was close to the Quakers in Olympia. I have sent a CD to one of the Friends who knows her parents and told him to use his descretion as to weither or not they might find it a comfort.
Thanks for the thoughtfulness
Larry

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25 Mar 03 - 05:23 PM (#918287)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: McGrath of Harlow

I note that Larry's song is on that Rachel Corrie memorial site - http://www.distanceeddesign.com/rachel/ along with lots of other really moving tributes. And there is a picture of a Palestinian mother holding her baby who has been given the name "Rachel Corrie", in grateful memory.

Pray that somehow Ra\chel's death makes a difference. It could.

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25 Mar 03 - 06:24 PM (#918350)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: CarolC

I forgot to come back and congratulate the other people who posted songs to this thread. Good job, all of you. These are good songs.

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31 Mar 03 - 07:44 AM (#922365)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: McGrath of Harlow

Just over two weeks since Rachel Corrie was killed - and in today's paper I came across this run down on some of the ways some people on the Internet have been trying to finish off what the bulldozer did to her.

Here's how columnist John Sutherland in the Guardian concludes his piece"What have we come to? The speed with which this kind of devil's advocacy can now (thanks to the net) be mounted, its sheer unbridled violence and its moral irresponsibility are, to the thoughtful mind, more frightening than any of those WMDs for whose (dubious) existence Britons are, at this moment, laying down their lives. Stop the world: I want to log off."

I can imagine how a young man driving a bulldozer could fail to keep a proper look out, and not see what he was doing, if that's how it was; I can even just about imagine how it might happen that someone in that situation could get twisted up so that maybe he didn't even care what he was doing, if that's how it was.

But my imagination just can't take in the way people, sitting safe in their homes, in front of their computers, can find it within themselves to write stuff like that. What happens in the lives of people to make them that way?

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31 Mar 03 - 10:55 AM (#922556)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: sed

Larry,
Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation now or ever. Believe it. Sing it. Preach it. There is only one God but there are many erroneous views of God. Yet we have freedom of choice.

Will we then sing songs to encourage unsaved people to risk their souls for the purpose of secular civil-disobedience when such actions will lead to eternal death?

It's bad enough when a body is destroyed but when one's soul is lost it is infinitely worse.

First, gratefully receive salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord, then prayerfully, when appropriate, once your soul has been saved, with the guidance of God risk the destruction of your body to save the souls of others.


1 John 5:12. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.


Steve Sedberry

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31 Mar 03 - 11:55 AM (#922621)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: McGrath of Harlow

"In as much as you did this for the least of my brethren, you did it for me."

Risking your life to stop a bulldozer crushing somebody's home to rubble - that strikes me as a pretty good example of somebody who is doing exactly that.

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31 Mar 03 - 01:27 PM (#922721)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: open mike

Thanks for the link to that memorial site:
here are the words that Rachel's friend wrote
to be sung to the tune of darlin' Corey:


Farewell, Farewell, Rachel Corrie

to the tune of "Wake Up, Wake Up, Darlin' Corey"

With love, for Rachel Corrie,

killed in Palestine on March 16, 2003

By Holly Gwinn Graham



Farewell, farewell, Rachel Corrie, Your story will not end.

Though some may call you martyr, To us you were a friend.



When first I saw Rachel Corrie, She was standing up for peace,

She was working hard for justice, And for human kind's release.



When next I saw Rachel Corrie, She was leaving for Palestine,

Going to be a human shield, With peacemaking on her mind.



When last I saw Rachel Corrie, She was crying out in vain,

Trying to stop the Israeli bulldozer, That crushed her once and again.



Dig a hole, dig a hole in the desert, Dig a hole in Rafah town,

Dig a hole in the heart of Israel's army, For mowing Rachel down.



Do you hear the people singing?, Can you hear their righteous sound?

No more military aid to Israel, No more tearing houses down!



Rise up, Rise up all you people!, And join your hearts in peace.

Help justice come to Palestine, Demand occupation cease!



Farewell, farewell, Rachel Corrie,,Your story will not end.

To some you are a martyr, To us you were a friend!

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06 Apr 03 - 08:16 AM (#927161)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rachel Corrie
From: InOBU

Dear SED:
When thee says, " Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation now or ever. Believe it. Sing it. Preach it. There is only one God but there are many erroneous views of God. Yet we have freedom of choice" in reguard to a question about Rachel's faith, well by their acts thee will know them. I know that she was not an evangelical Christian, and from talks with folks who knew her, she would not agree with your statement, i am certain. Now, if thee cannot see that of God in her actions (what greater gift can you give than to place thy life in the way of defending the innocent, without a gun, with only thy love) well, thee has put our God in a very small box in deed.
Thy Friend in the light
Larry

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